Interpretation and expectation: the anxiety of influence

Interpretations go beyond assigning unconscious meaning to analytic material. They inevitably communicate the analyst's assessments of the patient's present and past conflicts, and his expectations for their future resolution. The analyst's estimation of a patient's potential, as well as his personal investment in helping the patient realize that potential, is embedded in the interpretive process. Although careful analysis of unintended interpretive influences on a patient's transference and resistance is required to assure relative neutrality, there remains a residual conditioning effect of interpretations that catalyzes the analytic process and reinforces a patient's efforts to change.